Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete eBook

upon this hint. In a little while a new machine
of his own invention was erected hard by Dog’s
Misery. This was nothing more nor less than a
gibbet, of a very strange, uncouth, and unmatchable
construction, far more efficacious, as he boasted,
than the stocks, for the punishment of poverty.
It was for altitude not a whit inferior to that of
Haman, so renowned in Bible history; but the marvel
of the contrivance was, that the culprit, instead
of being suspended by the neck according to venerable
custom, was hoisted by the waistband, and kept dangling
and sprawling between heaven and earth for an hour
or two at a time, to the infinite entertainment and
edification of the respectable citizens who usually
attend exhibitions of the kind.

Such was the punishment of all petty delinquents,
vagrants, and beggars and others detected in being
guilty of poverty in a small way. As to those
who had offended on a great scale, who had been guilty
of flagrant misfortunes and enormous backslidings
of the purse, and who stood convicted of large debts
which they were unable to pay, William Kieft had them
straightway enclosed within the stone walls of a prison,
there to remain until they should reform and grow
rich. This notable expedient, however, does not
appear to have been more efficacious under William
the Testy than in more modern days, it being found
that the longer a poor devil was kept in prison the
poorer he grew.

END OF VOLUME I.

KNICKERBOCKER’S

HISTORY OF NEW YORK.

VOLUME II.

INTRODUCTION.

The playful devices by which attention was directed
to the coming publication of the History of Diedrich
Knickerbocker are represented in the author’s
opening to the first volume. Irving joined afterward
in business as a sleeping partner, visited England
in 1815, and, while cordially welcomed here by Thomas
Campbell, Walter Scott, and others, the failure of
his brother’s business obliged him to make writing
his profession. The publishers at first refused
to take one of the most charming of his works, the
“Sketch Book”; but John Murray yielded
at last to the influence of Walter Scott, and paid
L200 for the copyright of it, a sum afterward increased
to L400. “Bracebridge Hall” and the
“Tales of a Traveler” followed. Irving
went to Spain with the American Ambassador to translate
documents and acquire experience which he used afterward
in successive books. “The Life and Voyages
of Columbus” appeared in 1828, and was followed
by “Voyages of the Companions of Columbus.”